Monks leading the demonstrations in Yangon and around Myanmar have said they will continue with protests despite the crackdown.

One monk, Uppekha, speaking to Al Jazeera from a monastery in the northern city of Mandalay, said he planned to join fresh demonstrations on Friday afternoon.

"We will ask the entire people and monks to join our demonstration," he said, adding that several protests had been planned around the city.

Uppekha, a member of the All Burma Buddhist Monks Alliance, one of the groups that has led the recent wave of protests, said police in Mandalay had also fired warning shots on demonstrators on Thursday, although he was not aware of anyone being hit.

The news comes amid indications that the Myanmar government was stepping up its efforts to shut down communications with the outside world and prevent news of the crackdown leaking out.

At least one hotel housing foreign journalists has been raided, internet cafes have been closed and scores of phone lines and private internet connections cut.

On Thursday witnesses reported people with cameras or mobile phones were being beaten by security forces.

Internet cut

Blogs and underground journalists working for exiled media groups have been a key source of information on the escalating protests in tightly controlled Myanmar.

Myanmar's state-run media has been blaming external forces, including several foreign media organisations, for plotting to destabilise the country.

The protests were triggered by a sudden massive hike in the price of fuel last month and have escalated into the biggest challenge to Myanmar's military rulers in almost two decades.

An uprising by students and pro-democracy activists in 1988 was brutally crushed by the military, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead.